1990 Irish Presidential Election

1990 Irish presidential election
Turnout	64.1%
President before election; Patrick Hillery; Fianna Fáil	Elected President ; Mary Robinson; Labour

It was held on Wednesday, 7 November 1990 and was won by Mary Robinson on a joint Labour Party and Workers' Party ticket. The election was the first time in history a Fianna Fáil candidate failed to win the presidency. It was also the first time the Labour Party had contested a presidential election. The election had one of the tightest margins of victory in Irish presidential elections history, and the final leg of the campaign was characterised by intense internal turmoil within the Fianna Fáil party as well as personal attacks on the candidates from competing political parties. The election was considered a political failure for the Fine Gael party and would cause their leader, Alan Dukes, to resign in the immediate aftermath.

One of the central issues during the campaign was whether the role of the President should be expanded or not, with Robinson and Currie arguing it should while Lenihan argued against it. In the years following Robinson's election, she would transform the position into a much more visible and influential position in Irish politics.

Nomination procedure

Under Article 12 of the Constitution of Ireland, a candidate for president could be nominated by:

at least twenty of the 226 serving members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or
at least four of 31 county councils or county boroughs, or
a former or retiring president, on their own nomination.

The outgoing president, Patrick Hillery, had served the maximum of two terms, and no other former president was living.

The deadline for nominations was 16 October 1990.

Nomination campaigns

Labour and the Workers' Party

In January 1990, Labour leader Dick Spring publicly stated his belief that the Labour Party needed to run a serious candidate in the election and that if no other candidate could be found, he himself would run.

The first viable candidate Labour sought was Mary Robinson; with her background in both the Seanad and her legal work, both of which saw her fighting for causes such as women's and minority rights, Robinson seem to have excellent credentials for the role of President. However, a major stumbling block towards recruiting Robinson was her reluctance to rejoin/reaffiliate with the Labour Party. This delay in the recruitment of Robinson allowed for a second contender to emerge in the Labour camp: Dr Noel Browne.

Dr Noel Browne was a politician who had first emerged into Irish politics as a member of Clann na Poblachta and a Minister for Health in his very first term as a Teachta Dala as part of the first "interparty" government of 1948. Browne was initially lauded for his successful crusade against Tuberculous in Ireland, but his plan to introduce the Mother and Child Scheme was a major component in bringing down the government. From that time on, Browne was a persistent figure in Irish national politics but frequently found himself unable to integrate himself into party politics. After moving through a number of parties in the 1950s and 1960s, Browne was part of Labour for 14 years between 1963 and 1977. He would eventually leave the party in a bitter dispute over forming a formal electoral alliance with Fine Gael.

Spring's announcement in January had piqued Browne's interest and that of his supporters (which included Labour members such as Michael D. Higgins and Emmet Stagg). They quickly moved to explore options for how Browne could stand in elections, which led to Browne having an inconclusive meeting with the Workers' Party at the end of January. Browne's manoeuvring caught the attention of the Irish news media, who began to openly speculate about the prospect of a Browne candidacy, almost to the exclusion of Robinson. On 26 March, Browne was able to secure the endorsement of the Labour Women's National Council, a sub-organisation within the Labour Party with former ties to Robinson.

However, the Spring-Robinson talks continued to progress in parallel to Browne's movements, and on 4 April, Spring held a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party to discuss each candidate. A vote proposing Noel Browne as Labour's candidate was defeated by a 4 to 1 ratio, while a subsequent vote proposing Robinson succeeded.

Browne was bitterly disappointed to not receive the nomination and would for the remainder of his life hold a caustic view of Robinson. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that many of his supporters transferred their allegiance to Robinson once she became Labour's nominee and that they were a key component in her campaign.

Although Robinson had secured the Labour Party's nomination, she was not yet eligible to formally enter the race as the Labour Party consisted of only 15 Teachtaí Dála and 4 senators, and the support of 20 members of the Oireachtas was required to enter the race. In order to secure the final signatures required, the Labour Party worked together with the Workers' Party, who had 7 TDs.

By May 1990, Robinson was the formal joint Labour and Workers' Party nominee, and the first candidate to enter the race.

Fine Gael

Garret FitzGerald and Peter Barry were both approached by Alan Dukes to run on behalf of Fine Gael, but declined.

At the 1990 Fine Gael Ard Fheis, party leader Alan Dukes promised that he would find a "candidate of vigour and stature" to contest the election. However, Dukes had great difficulty in trying to secure a candidate from his party's ranks, primarily due to their perception that Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan would be a runaway favourite to win. Dukes attempted to secure the candidacies of former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and former Tánaiste Peter Barry but failed.

With his options dwindling, Dukes turned to the newly elected Teachta Dala Austin Currie. Currie had only entered the Dáil for the first time 15 months previously following the 1989 general election. However, Currie had an extensive background as a political activist in Northern Ireland as part of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and as a former member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

After Dukes convinced Currie to stand, Currie's nomination was confirmed by a unanimous vote of Fine Gael's parliamentary party on 12 September. By that point, it was already well known to the public that Brian Lenihan would be frontrunner for the Fianna Fáil nomination.

Fianna Fáil

On 17 September 1990, Fianna Fáil selected their candidate by holding a vote amongst members of their parliamentary party. Two members put their names forward: Brian Lenihan Snr, the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence and John Wilson, Minister for the Marine. Lenihan won the vote 51 to 19.

Failed Independent bid by Carmencita Hederman

On 15 October (the day before the nomination deadline) recently elected Senator and former Lord Mayor of Dublin Carmencita Hederman asked Dublin City Council to support her and to give her a nomination towards the presidency. However, the motion was defeated by 31 votes to 5. Councillors from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Progressive Democrats and the Workers' Party cited that they could not support her bid, as their parties had already given their support to other candidates or ruled themselves neutral. Hederman's bid was supported by Independent TDs such as Tony Gregory and Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus as well Green TD Roger Garland. Hederman did not petition any additional councils following her failure to secure a nomination from Dublin City Council.

Hederman asserted on 15 October that the Progressive Democrats had promised to support her bid contingent on her securing 20,000 signatures of public support, but pulled their pledge at the last moment. Mary Harney denied this, and stated she had told Hederman her support was contingent on Hederman securing the backing of 11 other TDs. Ultimately, the Progressive Democrats declared "neutrality" in the election, and did not officially support any candidate.

Campaign and issues

When Lenihan entered the race in mid-September, he was considered the odds-on favourite; no Fianna Fáil candidate had ever lost a presidential election.

Role of the President

Immediately upon his selection as the Fianna Fáil candidate on 17 September, Lenihan stated that he felt that expanding the role of the President was "not an issue in this campaign" and suggested it was not possible for any candidate to, by themselves, expand the role. Lenihan were in response to previous comments by both Robinson and Currie suggesting they could and would develop the presidency into a more active role in Irish politics. From as early as April 1990, Robinson made clear her ambitions to expand the role of the presidency.

Broad party support for Robinson

On October 11, the Green Party announced that it had held a ballot of its members and they had overwhelmingly voted to officially support Robinson's campaign bid. Robinson welcomed the announcement and stated her belief that environmentalism was an area in which the office of President could provide leadership.

In addition to enjoying the formal support of 3 separate political parties and their canvassers, many Fine Gael canvassers choose to provide support for Robinson over Currie. Polling carried out by The Irish Times by 16 October showed that half of those who considered themselves Fine Gael supporters favoured Robinson over Currie. Following the end of the campaign, Currie would cite the fact that many Fine Gael activists choose to support Robinson over himself as damaging his own campaign.

Furthermore, although their party was officially "neutral", many Progressive Democrats activists were broadly sympathetic to Robinson's social views and were also attracted to offering her support. This support intensified following Michael McDowell's robust defence of Robinson in the face of personal attacks by Fianna Fáil's Padraig Flynn (See Flynn personal remarks about Robinson below for more).

"Red Scare" tactics

The early and strong support amongst Fine Gael voters for Robinson alarmed the Fine Gael camp, who reacted by engaging in Red Scare tactics against Robinson rather than focusing on the favourite Lenihan. Immediately upon the confirmation that Currie was in the race, prominent members of Fine Gael, such as Jim Mitchell and Michael Noonan, suggested that Robinson would be the "acceptable face of Socialism in Ireland" and that a victory for Robinson would be a victory for the Workers' Party.

Members of Fianna Fáil would repeat similar accusations as the polls tightened and it became apparent that Robinson was a credible threat to Lenihan's campaign.

Robinson Hot Press interview

In September 1990, the magazine Hot Press conducted a 90-minute interview with Robinson. The audio was recorded and certain portions were later transcribed in order to be used in print. Two weeks passed between the actual interview and its eventual appearance in the October edition of the monthly magazine. Upon the release of the interview, the Fianna Fáil affiliated newspaper The Irish Press lead that day with a front-page headline reading "LONGEST SUICIDE NOTE IN HISTORY" and an article by Emily O’Reilly focusing on Robinson responding "Yes" when asked in the interview if she would, as president, officiate the opening of a stall selling contraceptives in a Virgin Megastore. Both Lenihan and Currie accused Robinson of making a political gaffe with this response. The Robinson camp initially claimed Robinson had been misquoted, but when Liam Fay, the journalist for Hot Press, was able to produce the audio recording of the interview, his transcription was proven correct. The Robinson camp changed tack, and claimed that Robinson had not meant "Yes, I would", but simply that because of her legal background, she was in the habit of advancing dialogue by saying "Yes" as an interjection. Robinson would henceforth deny that she would preside over any illegal activity should she win the election.

The Lenihan tape

Although Lenihan was the initial favourite to win the election, his campaign was derailed when he confirmed in an on-the-record interview with freelance journalist and academic researcher Jim Duffy that he had been involved in controversial attempts to pressurise President Patrick Hillery not to dissolve the Dáil in 1982. After the contrast between his public denials during the campaign and his eventual confirmation of his role during his earlier interview recorded in May the Progressive Democrats, then in coalition with Fianna Fáil, threatened to support an opposition motion of no confidence unless Lenihan was dismissed from the government or an inquiry into the 1982 events was set up. The incident caused Lenihan's support to drop from 43% to 32% with Robinson going from 38% to 51%. Taoiseach Charles Haughey privately asked Lenihan to resign, and sacked him on 31 October—a week before the election—when he refused to do so leading to a sympathy vote for Lenihan; his support in the polls going from 32% on 29 October to 42% on 3 November (with Robinson's support dropping from 51 to 42%).

Flynn personal remarks about Robinson

"She was pretty well constructed for this campaign by her handlers in the Labour Party and the Workers' Party. Of course, it doesn't always suit if you get labelled a socialist, because that's a very narrow focus in this country, so she has to try and have it both ways. She has to have new clothes and her new look and her new hairdo and she has the new interest in her family, being a mother, all that kind of thing. But none of us, you know, none of us who knew Mary Robinson very well in previous incarnations ever heard her claiming to be a great wife and mother. Mary Robinson reconstructs herself to fit the fashion of the time, so we have this thing that you can be substituted at will, whether it's the pro-socialist thing, or pro-contraception, or pro-abortion, whatever it is. But at least we should know. Mary Robinson is a socialist; she says it and has admitted it previously. Now she may have changed her mind, and if she has changed her mind, so be it. But at least she should tell us that she has changed her mind and not be misleading us."

Padraig Flynn during an appearance on RTÉ Radio 1 on 3 November 1990,

On 3 November, just days before voting was due to take place, cabinet minister Pádraig Flynn of Fianna Fáil made an appearance on the RTÉ Radio 1 show Saturday View alongside Michael McDowell of the Progressive Democrats and Brendan Howlin of the Labour Party. During the segment, Flynn launched a personal attack on Mary Robinson, accusing her of "having a new-found interest in her family" as part of a new public persona introduced for the campaign. An infuriated McDowell, whose party had been broadly sympathetic to Lenihan and Fianna Fáil until that moment, excoriated Flynn, immediately calling the remarks a "disgrace", called upon Flynn to withdraw them and told him to "learn some manners". Similarly, an incensed Howlin called the remarks typical of a Fianna Fáil campaign in which "no dirt was too awful, no smear too great", and accused Flynn of outright lying about Robinson. Flynn did not withdraw the remark during the course of the programme, however, following an immediate and powerful public backlash, Flynn hurried to publicly withdraw the remark later the same day.

Flynn's attack was a fatal blow to Lenihan's campaign, causing many female supporters of Lenihan to vote for Robinson in a gesture of support.

Lenihan received a plurality of first-preference votes. Robinson received more than twice as many votes as Currie, and 76.73% of Currie's votes transferred to Robinson, beating Lenihan into second place and electing Robinson as Ireland's first female president.

Result

1990 Irish presidential election
Candidate	Nominated by		% 1st Pref	Count 1	Count 2
Mary Robinson		Oireachtas: Labour Party and Workers' Party	38.9	612,265	817,830
Brian Lenihan		Oireachtas: Fianna Fáil	44.1	694,484	731,273
Austin Currie		Oireachtas: Fine Gael	17.0	267,902
Electorate: 2,471,308 Valid: 1,574,651 Spoilt: 9,444 (0.6%) Quota: 787,326 Turnout: 64.1%

First preference vote

Lenihan			44.1%
Robinson			38.9%
Currie			17.0%

Final percentage

Robinson			51.9%
Lenihan			46.5%

Results by constituency

First count votes
Constituency	Currie		Lenihan		Robinson
Constituency	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
Carlow–Kilkenny	9,941	18.8%	23,808	45.1%	19,054	36.1%
Cavan–Monaghan	10,049	21.2%	25,365	53.6%	11,923	25.2%
Clare	7,956	18.3%	21,669	50.0%	13,745	31.7%
Cork East	7,048	18.5%	16,928	44.4%	14,124	37.1%
Cork North-Central	6,038	15.5%	15,020	38.6%	17,832	45.9%
Cork North-West	8,414	27.7%	13,843	45.5%	8,162	26.8%
Cork South-Central	9,254	17.3%	18,176	33.9%	26,226	48.8%
Cork South-West	8,623	29.1%	11,957	40.4%	9,034	30.5%
Donegal North-East	3,958	17.1%	12,834	55.3%	6,397	27.6%
Donegal South-West	4,794	19.0%	13,344	53.0%	7,058	28.0%
Dublin Central	4,711	12.3%	17,855	46.7%	15,683	41.0%
Dublin North	3,931	11.4%	14,812	43.1%	15,637	45.5%
Dublin North-Central	4,752	12.7%	16,658	44.5%	16,064	42.8%
Dublin North-East	3,690	11.0%	13,939	41.3%	16,082	47.7%
Dublin North-West	2,795	10.1%	11,611	42.0%	13,240	47.9%
Dublin South	9,646	17.0%	17,948	31.7%	29,103	51.3%
Dublin South-Central	5,578	13.0%	16,847	39.4%	20,394	47.6%
Dublin South-East	5,528	16.6%	10,573	31.7%	17,262	51.7%
Dublin South-West	3,661	9.9%	15,340	41.7%	17,826	48.4%
Dublin West	6,439	13.4%	21,987	45.6%	19,772	41.0%
Dún Laoghaire	8,957	17.0%	14,974	28.4%	28,815	54.6%
Galway East	5,629	20.4%	13,883	50.4%	8,043	29.2%
Galway West	8,094	17.6%	18,885	41.1%	18,978	41.3%
Kerry North	5,192	17.2%	13,896	45.9%	11,155	36.9%
Kerry South	4,891	17.2%	14,230	50.0%	9,336	32.8%
Kildare	7,701	15.2%	21,388	42.2%	21,638	42.6%
Laois–Offaly	8,690	17.1%	25,635	50.4%	16,571	32.5%
Limerick East	7,498	17.6%	14,583	34.2%	20,527	48.2%
Limerick West	5,955	19.3%	16,055	51.2%	8,766	28.5%
Longford–Westmeath	7,716	18.7%	21,860	52.9%	11,741	28.4%
Louth	5,588	14.1%	20,134	50.8%	13,894	35.1%
Mayo East	5,023	18.7%	11,838	44.2%	9,947	37.1%
Mayo West	4,706	18.3%	12,114	47.1%	8,905	34.6%
Meath	8,174	16.7%	23,960	49.0%	16,818	34.3%
Roscommon	6,482	23.0%	14,454	51.3%	7,223	25.7%
Sligo–Leitrim	7,794	20.3%	18,917	49.3%	11,660	30.4%
Tipperary North	5,822	20.0%	14,373	49.4%	8,926	30.6%
Tipperary South	7,227	19.4%	17,317	46.4%	12,751	34.2%
Waterford	6,160	15.9%	17,236	44.5%	15,359	39.6%
Wexford	7,906	16.8%	21,790	46.5%	17,201	36.7%
Wicklow	5,891	14.1%	16,448	39.4%	19,393	46.5%
Total	267,902	17.0%	694,484	44.1%	612,265	38.9%

Second count result
Constituency	Lenihan		Robinson
Constituency	Votes	%	Votes	%
Carlow–Kilkenny	25,103	48.4%	26,733	51.6%
Cavan–Monaghan	26,796	57.7%	19,664	42.3%
Clare	22,715	53.2%	20,004	46.8%
Cork East	17,836	47.8%	19,438	52.2%
Cork North-Central	15,934	41.6%	22,346	58.4%
Cork North-West	14,896	50.3%	14,711	49.7%
Cork South-Central	19,416	36.8%	33,301	63.2%
Cork South-West	13,084	45.6%	15,640	54.4%
Donegal North-East	13,384	59.4%	9,162	40.6%
Donegal South-West	13,915	56.5%	10,730	43.5%
Dublin Central	18,648	49.5%	19,042	50.5%
Dublin North	15,458	45.5%	18,563	54.5%
Dublin North-Central	17,394	47.1%	19,585	52.9%
Dublin North-East	14,537	43.7%	18,772	56.3%
Dublin North-West	12,059	44.2%	15,281	55.8%
Dublin South	19,330	34.7%	36,473	65.3%
Dublin South-Central	17,743	42.0%	24,517	58.0%
Dublin South-East	11,358	34.7%	21,418	65.3%
Dublin South-West	15,894	43.6%	20,573	56.4%
Dublin West	22,959	48.3%	24,668	51.7%
Dún Laoghaire	16,293	31.5%	35,527	68.5%
Galway East	14,486	53.4%	12,651	46.6%
Galway West	19,875	43.9%	25,472	56.1%
Kerry North	14,669	49.3%	15,096	50.7%
Kerry South	14,812	52.9%	13,238	47.1%
Kildare	22,493	45.1%	27,467	54.9%
Laois–Offaly	26,740	53.4%	23,397	46.6%
Limerick East	15,589	37.3%	26,235	62.7%
Limerick West	16,834	55.8%	13,380	44.2%
Longford–Westmeath	22,881	56.3%	17,795	43.7%
Louth	21,070	53.9%	18,053	46.1%
Mayo East	12,362	46.7%	14,162	53.3%
Mayo West	12,566	49.5%	12,845	50.5%
Meath	25,122	52.2%	23,037	47.8%
Roscommon	15,185	54.9%	12,495	45.1%
Sligo–Leitrim	19,906	52.7%	17,882	47.3%
Tipperary North	15,119	52.9%	13,483	47.1%
Tipperary South	18,299	50.2%	18,214	49.8%
Waterford	18,170	47.8%	19,880	52.2%
Wexford	22,990	49.9%	23,058	50.1%
Wicklow	17,353	42.2%	23,842	57.8%
Total	731,273	46.5%	817,830	51.9%

Aftermath

I was elected by the women of Ireland, Mná na hÉireann, who instead of rocking the cradle...rocked the system!
— Mary Robinson, Victory speech, 9 November 1990

Both the immediate and long-term reactions to Robinson's election were to declare it a turning point in Irish social and political history. The Irish Press, a national newspaper staunchly aligned with Fianna Fáil, immediately stated that the election "signals a change in Irish society and a shift away from traditional attitudes and allegiances".

The result obtained by Austin Currie for Fine Gael, just 17%, was considered a terrible result for the party and immediately undermined the credibility of party leader Alan Dukes. Dukes resigned his position as party leader on 20 November 1990.